Transition - Reviewing our Curriculum in the light of the Ofsted Research Review

Our KS3 Review Document

 We are currently reviewing aspects of our curriculum in the light of the Ofsted Research Review. We are not panicking or jumping through hoops with a sudden change of direction as a knee-jerk reaction. (Sounds painful.) I am writing these posts as we think things through and use it as an opportunity to come together as a department. This first post is on the particularly thorny issue of Transition from Primary to Secondary School.

In the ALL Connect Transition Toolkit (2015), Rachel Hawkes said that Joining up KS2 and KS3 is arguably the most important piece of work that many of us will do in our careers over the next decade. And the Toolkit took this approach to Transition - that it's not about handing over a list of pupils' grades at the end of Year 6, but about creating a joined up pupil language-learning experience over the 7 years of KS2 and KS3.

I would also add to this, that Primary Teachers have a professional interest in good KS2-KS3 transition, in that they are dedicated to their pupils and proud of their work in languages. But they don't directly benefit from it. The pupils are leaving them and coming to us. It is Secondary Teachers who have the greatest interest and will see the benefit of good transition, and it's our responsibility to make it work.

So what do Ofsted say about it? From my KS3 departmental review document, I have highlighted what I think are the 3 main points relevant to our school in the Ofsted Research Review: The stipulation of Substantial Progress in One Language in KS2. That the Secondary School Curriculum must take into account pupils' KS2 learning. And the fact that this area is a Weakness.

My initial reflections are to make all the usual excuses: We have so many feeders, they don't all do the same language, our feeders aren't in our Trust, some switch between languages... and so on. 

And then to protest that we do try. Because we do. We have worked with Primaries training teachers through the ALL Connect project, and going in to deliver lessons, and having pupils come here for taster French lessons. And run after school competitions for Primary pupils. And created story books for Primary pupils and planned to create virtual tours of the school...

But these things have now been on hold for two years, so things will have changed. The Teacher in charge of languages may have changed, their curriculum may well have been updated, they may have changed the language(s) they offer! So it is definitely time to be getting in touch and building relationships.

Meanwhile, we need to look carefully at what we do in Year 7.

All subjects have a "baseline test". In languages, I am not keen on having something that feels like an exam and ends up making pupils feel they don't know things they ought to. So ours is an information gathering exercise. It asks pupils questions about their language-learning experiences so far, places they have visited or would like to visit, and languages their family speak. This is the starting point for discussion about languages, knowing and valuing the pupils' experience and ambition. 

There is also a short French passage for them to read and pick out what they understand. We return to this throughout the introductory unit, as they learn to read aloud with confidence and to understand more and more of what it says.

Then there's our choice of topics for the first units. We used to do Rachel Hawkes's Francovision Song Contest as a deliberate Transition tactic. Each Y7 class learned and filmed a French pop song. These were played in assemblies and voted on by different year groups. It was an ideal start, avoiding familiar topics and working on the key objectives of pronunciation, memorisation, and communication. Then some of our feeder schools started using the same idea, inviting our Year 9 International Leaders to go along and be judges. So we had to change.

Our second unit in Y7 is the Art Exhibition, designed to pick up on word order, adjectival agreement, shapes, colours, opinions, and prepositions, but in the context of creating an art gallery exhibition. Each pupil creates an artwork and writes a description and the artist's biography in French. These go on show to the paying public at a local gallery. This is a deliberate way to tackle important basic aspects of French grammar and vocabulary, but in a new creative context that avoids repeating what they have done in KS2. Touch wood, so far none of the Primary Schools have decided to take up the idea themselves.

Which brings me on to our first unit. It is based on personal description of self, family and pets. With the verb to have and the verb to be. With adjectives and sets of nouns, numbers and months... So it does risk some repetition of material already covered. We have to be alert to pupils who have a stronger foundation from KS2, and pupils who have had no language-learning at all.

We hope that what we do helps pull their learning together and upgrades what they can do with it and how it fits into the overall systematisation of how the language fits together. We have a strong focus on phonics, based on Rachel Hawkes's Francophoniques. We expect them to be using Question and Answer in pairwork to develop speaking. And we use scaffolding to extend and personalise their writing.

We also try to theme the topic slightly differently, with a Crime focus. We have descriptions of suspects, create Wanted posters for teachers, play Guess Who, and have a scenario to read aloud and act out.

For now, I think this is good. But we must keep paying attention and as pupils arrive with more and more experience of languages, it will be the first thing to change.

So while Transition is going to continue to be an on-going challenge, it's not one of the areas where the Ofsted Research Review itself comes up with any dilemma. The other areas coming up next are Phonics, Grammar, Vocabulary, Culture and Communication, Assessments and Feedback, Target Language, and Leadership. So I can see there's going to be some issues to deal with in future posts...